A Unique Look At The Pittsburgh Pirates

Prospect Recap: Part XIII

Top Prospects 26-30

30. Adalberto Santos: Santos was drafted by the Pirates in the 22nd round of the 2010 draft. Santos has limited power and his speed is decent but he isn’t exactly fast. He was drafted as a red shirt senior out of college meaning he was just a few months shy of being 23. His bio and his tools have the look of an organizational player but yet Santos isn’t one for the sole reason that he can really hit. The Pirates drafted Santos as a 2B but in his pro debut in 2010 at the A- level he played exclusively in the corner outfield. He played well there posting a .885 OPS, showing decent speed by going 17/24 in steal attempts and playing solid defense. Due to his good performance and his age the Pirates aggressively pushed him A+ in 2011. Here Santos started splitting his time between 2B and the OF and once again he played well, posting a .868 OPS. Santos showed a touch more power with 7 HR and was once again efficient on the base paths going 27/31 in steal attempts but it was his OBP and plate discipline that once again stood out. Santos started 2012 off in AA and played great for the first month before suffering a knee injury. The injury caused Santos to miss two months but he picked up right where he left when he returned. He did eventually cool down a little but he finished the season with a .858 OPS at the AA level. The Pirates seem to have ended his 2B experiment as he played exclusively in the OF. Santos’s lack of power is probably going to stop him from being a regular in the majors but the fact that he can hit so well and show great plate discipline all while running well and playing solid defense makes him an ideal candidate for a bench job. He should start the 2013 season in AAA and is one to watch.

29. Duke Welker: Welker I believe is one of the last prospect holdouts remaining from the Littlefield days. He was drafted by the Pirates in the 2nd round of the 2007 draft. At the time of his selection he was viewed as an overdraft with the ceiling of a 4/5 starter plus he came with considerable injury risks. He started off well in 2007 in his pro debut at the A- level but had to be shut down due to forearm tightness. The next two years Welker was tried as a starter at the A level and was simply put a disaster. He posted a 5.51 and 5.79 ERA respectively and was every bit as bad as those numbers suggest. Welker started 2011 back in A ball with his prospect days all but over but something happened. Welker started pitching out of the bullpen and was a vastly different pitcher. His fastball no longer was low 90s but upper 90s and in his short stints he was able to miss bats and limit contact. Unfortunately this also came with some big control problems something that hadn’t really plagued him in the past. Still this was enough to get him promoted to A+ at midseason. He continued to pitch well there and he was deadly against right handers as they batted only .107 against him. In 2011 he started back at the A+ level pitching about the same except with a touch more control and was eventually promoted to AA. Welker before last season was a surprising add to the 40 man roster showing the Pirates believe in him. He started 2012 at AA and pitched very well earning him a quick promotion to AAA where he continued to pitch well albeit with slightly worse control. If Welker can reign in his control he has the talent to be a dominant back of the bullpen reliever and that is surely what the Pirates see, hopefully he’ll begin to realize that potential this upcoming season.

28. Zach Von Rosenberg: Von Rosenberg was one of the many projectable prep pitcher the Pirates selected in the 2009 draft and in fact he was widely considered the best of the bunch. Von Rosenberg was drafted in the 6th round but was a top 50 overall talent. He was said to have good command of his whole arsenal at the time and it was believed his velocity would increase on his fastball from the 91-92 it was sitting at. In 2009 Von Rosenberg got to pitch 1 inning at the rookie level so essentially his pro debut came the following season in A-. He was decent at the level showing good control but he also didn’t miss a lot of bats. A big positive was that his off speed pitches were viewed by scouts as getting better. Von Rosenberg started the 2011 season at the A level and got rocked through his first 16 starts posting a 7.58 ERA. He showed great command and actually improved his strike out rates to a fairly good level but he showed a tendency to leave his fastball elevated and when he did it got hit hard. On a positive note he did seem like he was figuring something out near the end of the year as over his last 9 starts he had a 2.66 ERA which lowered his season ERA to 5.73. Von Rosenberg started back at the A ball level in 2012 and he showed limited progress over 2011. He wasn’t hit as hard but his walk rate rose and his strike out rate fell. He showed some flashes of pitching very well but wasn’t consistent by any means and his fastball continues to sit at 91-92 and sometimes doesn’t even reach that. The hope for increase in stuff hasn’t come but yet Von Rosenberg will still only be 22 next season and should start the year in A+, a very age appropriate level. There is still time for Von Rosenberg to turn his pro career around and become a legit prospect and we know the talent is there still this year will be a huge one for him.

27. Mel Rojas Jr: Rojas is yet another prospect with all the talent one would want a prospect to possess but yet he hasn’t produced. He was drafted by the Pirates in the 3rd round of the 2010 draft and considered a potential five tool talent with power as the tool most in question. There is no doubt Rojas can run well and has a tremendous arm. He started his pro career off at the A- level in 2010 and struggled immensely. He simply didn’t hit but he did show some solid plate discipline. In 2011 he started the year at the A level and once again he played poorly. He was slightly better at making contact but the solid plate discipline he showed was gone and he struck out roughly 20% of the time, a rate too high for a hitter like Rojas. On a positive note he did show some improvement to his plate discipline in the second half of the season and was definitely a better player but he still wasn’t playing all that well. Despite his struggles Rojas was promoted to A+ where he continued to play center field and oddly enough he had a very eerily similar season to what he had in 2011. He did managed to show the slightest increase in power but he also showed a slight decrease in his walk rate. If Rojas is not promoted next season he will likely be forced to moved away from center field because of the talent behind him. So far Rojas has made very little progress and his prospect days are quickly running out but still the talent is there to make him one to watch.

26. Eric Wood: Wood was selected in the 6th round of this past draft and was largely dismissed as a signability pick to save money for Appel. While Wood did sign for underslot it wasn’t for as low as an amount as most of the other back half of the top 10 picks. Wood received a 100K signing bonus. Wood was drafted out of a junior college making him neither a traditional high school or college prospect. At the time of the draft little was actually known about him except for the fact that he had some decent power as evident by him winning his team’s home run derby. Wood made his pro debut in the rookie level and showed off some of that good power. He posted a .838 OPS and was good all around at the plate. Defensively the Pirates had Wood play 3rd base which is his natural position and he was solid defensively there. Due to the Pirates lack of 3B prospects Wood is likely the organization’s top prospect at the position meaning he should be blocked by no one as he moves up. The Pirates gave Wood a small taste of the A- level near the end of the year which is usually an indication that they are considering sending a player straight to A ball. Wood has to prove he can carry his success in rookie ball over to higher levels before he will start to fully settle in as a prospect but there is nothing not to like so far with what he has shown.

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